ISSUES
IN THE NEGOTIATING PROCESS
Methodologies, reporting and review under the Kyoto Protocol: Guidelines under
Articles 5, 7 and 8

Background

Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Kyoto Protocol address the reporting
and review of information by Annex I Parties under the Protocol, as well as national
systems and methodologies for the preparation of greenhouse gas inventories.

Article 5 commits Annex I Parties to having in place, no later
than 2007, national systems for the estimation of greenhouse gas emissions by
sources and removals by sinks (Article 5.1). It also states that, where agreed
methodologies (that is, the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories, see decision 2/CP.3) are not used to estimate emissions and removals,
appropriate "adjustments" should be applied (Article 5.2).

Article 7 requires Annex I Parties to submit annual greenhouse
gas inventories, as well as national communications at regular intervals, both
including supplementary information to demonstrate compliance with the Protocol.
In addition, Article 7 states that the Conference of the Parties serving as the
meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (COP/MOP) shall decide upon modalities
for the accounting of assigned amounts prior to the first commitment period.

Article 8 establishes that the inventories and communications
submitted by Annex I Parties will be reviewed by expert review teams.

The Protocol states that guidelines for national systems, adjustments,
the preparation of inventories and national communications, as well as for the
conduct of expert reviews, should be adopted by the COP/MOP at its first session
(COP/MOP 1), and regularly reviewed thereafter.

At COP 4 (Buenos Aires, November 1998), Parties set a deadline
of COP 6 (The Hague, November 2000) for taking decisions on these guidelines,
to be recommended for adoption to COP/MOP 1, as part of the "Buenos Aires
Plan of Action". Negotiations on Articles 5, 7 and 8 have been conducted
under the SBSTA and inter-sessional workshops
have also taken place to advance work on the issue.

Parties were unable to reach agreement, however, on a package
of decisions under the Buenos Aires Plan of Action at COP 6 in The Hague and,
in the same way as for other items, negotiating texts on Articles 5, 7 and 8 were
forwarded to a resumed session of COP 6 for further consideration.

In order to advance the methodological work needed on Articles
5, 7 and 8 Parties submitted views on how information on "demonstrable progress"
should be presented and evaluated (under Article 3.2 of the Kyoto Protocol, Annex
I Parties must have made "demonstrable progress" in meeting their commitments
by 2005).

Latest developments

Time constraints prevented the establishment of a negotiating
group on Articles 5, 7 and 8 at COP 6 part II (Bonn, July 2001), and the relevant
negotiating texts were forwarded to COP 7 (Marrakesh, October/November 2001) for
further work.

Mindful of the significant amount of work still required to complete
the guidelines under Articles 5, 7 and 8, COP 6 part II requested the secretariat
to organize an inter-sessional workshop on the issue before COP 7. This workshop
was held in Bonn, on 4-6 October 2001.

Next steps

Negotiations on guidelines under Articles 5, 7 and
8 to be recommended for adoption by COP/MOP 1 will continue at COP 7, with a view
to reaching consensus on the guidelinesat that session.